Week 12 - The Happiness Project

Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking everyday. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast. -Norman Vincent Peale

As I reviewed my entries for this week, I found so many good things to be thankful about.

Have a break! Have a Kit-Kat!

Cath Kidston Carryall

Goodies from Japan

The much needed pedi

First Lambretta watch

Tula Carrier

Mother Cares

Solo trips nowadays are dangerous for me. I always leave the house with a lighter bag and come home with a puffed out wallet, not with cash but with receipts!

This was supposed to be just a quick solo trip to the mall with the agenda of going to the bank (thank you Saturday banking) and to Healthway for warts removal. Did really feel productive being able to finish some errands, but I'm not sure if I should be proud of my card-swiping ability? Mmm. . . 

50% off from Carter's/Osh Kosh B'Gosh

Those SALE signs were so tempting that they successfully lured me into buying additional clothes for the little one (really how many pairs of shirt+pants does a crawling baby need?). Funny how mothers like dressing their children up like adults, those onesies would just do great, but then those mini versions of adult clothes are just too cute to resist! 

In a few days, Jos will be turning 6 months old! He will be trying on solids soon! Excited! Enough reason to buy his first spoons and bowls in Mothercare. Also, found the Sophie la girafe teether back in shelf again. It was out of stock when we were there last weekend so I immediately grabbed one when I saw it. 

Set of weaning spoons, weaning bowls and lids, and Sophie la girafe teether from Mothercare

Going to Cebu this week for the summer vacation. This would be Jos' first summer outing. Swimming is on the list of to dos so we need to get him his first swimming attire. Tadaaaah! It was difficult to find one for a six-month old baby, thanks goodness Toys R Us has them. 

So that was my loot alright. A few thousands poorer but when I see these stuff on/to be used by my baby it doesn't really matter... 

By the way, I might have to avoid the 4th Floor of Greenbelt 5 for a while. Until then . . .

Lambretta Cielo Black Watch

Belated birthday gift for myself. Thank you Emirates Skywards mileage points! :)

On March 7th I received an email from Emirates reminding me of my expiring points this month. I initially checked for plane tickets but decided against it after a while. Obviously, I could not travel alone and my points would not be enough to cover the airfare for the three of us. Browsed the Emirates High Street instead and checked the items that I could buy with my points. I have wanted to buy a simple watch in Swatch but since they did not carry the brand my attention was veered into buying Lambretta, after of course reading feedbacks and checking the brand. Since style was simple the price was also okay, I was able to squeeze in  a set of silver earrings + necklace. Yey!!! Placed my order on March 22nd and package was delivered to our office via FEDEX yesterday, March 28th! Impressive!!! I had to shell out an amount for the shipping cost though but this watch worth $85 so it was all worth it. And oh the set of jewellery was also around that value. Happy me! :)

My kinda week. . . The Holy Week

So I decided to write again. I always found excuses not to write before, seemed like I had limitless number of things to do in my list. Now that I become a mother you would think that my list becomes endless, on the contrary, I could now find time to write. That may be because I am freed up of all those activities that occupied my time. Now that I have Jos, I could no longer do those things, and while I did become busier with the baby around, I am just staying home, unlike before - need not to elaborate. I am writing this post while Jos is sleeping and I hope I can finish this before he wakes up and looks for mommy.

Anyways, so how was my week?

Yes, a belated birthday bannoffee pie :) This comes from the office. Starting this year the group decided to give a gift to the birthday celebrant instead of buying a cake. We were asked to write our wishlist for an amount of around Php700. Boy was I having a hard time putting something on that list! Lately though I found myself shopping not for me but for the little one. So what I did was put their my favorite cake (or pie?) because afterall what is a birthday without having one, right?  I intended to share it with my colleagues, but forgot so I ended bring home the whole pie. The husband is not that into sweet, so it's just between me and my neighboor friend. And oh by the way, I still have left in my ref... hahaha

My brother who came back from Saudi gave me this as a gift. I had wanted to buy a GoPro because I wanted to use that for taking Jos' videos. I asked him to scout for sale, and mind you electronics there are cheaper even sans sale than here. I then decided to just buy an ordinary digital camera since I would only use it for videos anyways. Husband and I are both using iPhone but due to so much picture-taking and video-recording we always run out of memory space. I thought a digital cam for videos might be helpful. I think this was too cheap because my brother volunteered to buy it for me as a gift. (Now I am wondering, had I decided to have that GoPro, would he buy it for a gift too? hehe). The last time I had a digital cam was a decade ago before I switched to DSLR. I just got too excited to get my hands on this one! :)

It's a no-no to let Jos get out of your sight even for seconds. He moves so fast and look what happened when we had our attention away from him. So love watching how this little man grows so fast. 

When the crib now becomes so small for him. Haha. He got mad when he could no longer roll but upon seeing his dad taking him a photo he posed and smiled. Hahaha, this made my day... The elGuapito Jos con laGuapita pose. Hahaha

Belgian chocolate cookies plus sweet birthday greeting card from my lovely, neighbor friend. Feeling loved. :)

Did manage to cook tuna-pesto pasta for a Good Friday. Yum, the husband loved it, success!!!

Good Friday

Remembering the days when you could not do much on a Good Friday. As children, we were not allowed to leave the house, forcing everyone to stay inside. One good thing I could remember though was the palatable food that my mother together with her help prepared. The ginataan is I think my favorite. I really would not mind staying at home, it was more fun for me seeing the complete household sticking together.

Things changed when I started living away from my parents. There was one time I remember spending Good Friday in a different country dancing in a party.

Now, when I already have a baby in tow I suddenly remember all those traditions, and some superstitions. So, just to be on the safe side, we didn't leave the house today. I cooked my favorite pesto pasta for dinner and didn't eat meat the whole day. And I'll tell you a secret, did not even take a shower today, so gross of me... But I promised the husband that tomorrow we'll go to BGC and eat good food there.

Well, that's enough for now.

Innocence Day

Happy Innocence Day!

Greetings from the city touted as City of Surprises!

Yes, I have spent Christmas in Pasto, amidst some family members' protest. I decided t stay a little bit longer with a plan in mind to visit close good friends in the neighboring countries (namely: Peru and Bolivia).

Christmas was great! I have spent it with my friend's family and surprisingly even though I'm the only outsider I never felt out-of-place. They even made me sing in the tune of 'O come all ye Faithful' and one Filipino song. But one surprising thing is that I even received two gifts during the close in family Christmas Party! Hooboy...

Anyways, I'm supposed to write about Innocence Day. They came up with their own version of it :Dia del Agua...in which I still have to research how and why...

At first, nobody wanted to go outside for the fear of getting wet. And when I decided to bravely go out, all I heard was the BUENA SUERTES from them. Few minutes later I came back unharmed, safe and sound, and dry. At 9, the whole household decided to bring me to the streets to see how is it like outside. We were like thieves sneaking inside the car, vigilantly looking for possible water-thrower that were hiding behind bushes. We did get in safe, thanks God!

After successfully making the vuelta, we dicided to go home for a quick lunch. At the gate entrance we saw young people havig fun with water. The big barrel of water did escape my sight. As we were drawing near the parking lot, about 10 guys were also fast approaching. Julieta, Diana, Armando and I decided to stay inside the car for a while until the guys slowly disappeared out of sight. As I was in a hurry to get back home (tenia chichi) I opened the cardoor and slowly went out. And then the unexpected thing happened. All those guys suddenly appeared and snatched us (me and Diana) and forcibly dipped us in the barrel of water. Just imagine how wet I did get. Yet, surprisingly, I never felt a bit annoyed. Hell, that was fun!

And the fun didn't end there! In the afternoon we decided to join in PIAYO, which is like a dumptruck. It was loaded with ballons filled with water. In the streets were many people throwing each other water. I've never seen such chaotic yet very fun activity in my life!

Second Birthday in Colombia

I so wanted to make my birthday dinner to be something special. Unfurtunately, I wasn't equipped with cooking skills, so I couldn't prepare a decent dinner for my friends. Disappointment swelled up when Arnie told me he couldn't come and help me cook. I ended up cooking the Filipino style spaghetti...and the rest? It just fell into place. Indeed we had enough for ourselves and a lot of cake left-overs after. I learned one thing though...you don't need a grandiose celebration to really have a happy, happy birthday, all you need is just your friends... That birthday would surely go to my 'unforgettable experience list'...

My birthday this year happened to be a Tuesday. I had the chance to celebrate it twice: on the day itself and the following day which was also the TRAINEES' Night. And what could have been more appropriate than to have it in a Karaoke Bar? The best karaoke bar in town so I'd heard, and I was convinced that it really is...

My first time to sing Spanish song in a karaoke

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Elizabeth

What's in your 'BUCKET LIST'?

"It's difficult to understand the sum of a person's life.
Some people would tell you it's measured by the one's left behind.
Some believe it can be measured in faith.
Some say by love.
Other folks say life has no meaning at all.
Me? I believe that you measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you".-Carter Chamber, played by Morgan Freeman in the movie The Bucket List-

*************************************

If you had to gauge your life, how'd you measure it up?

Probably with the number of achievements you have?
The amount of money you earn?
Number of friends you make?
Possessions you acquire?
Whatever. But wouldn’t it be great to just forget all about it and live for the moment?. . .Fun but without stepping on anyone’s feet… Later on you’ll find people looking up to you, and that’s how we can truly measure ourselves. Probably. Or probably not.
I celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago, should I live up to a century, I’m already on my second quarter. That’s if I can. Perla’s prediction (see related article) still rings into my mind which by the way drive me to enjoy life to the fullest and just have fun for tomorrow is unsure.
As a rare coincidence, my birthday is also my mom's. Every year, we always have a race to who is the first person to greet Happy Birthday. This time, for three years in a row, we had to greet each other by phone, observing the 13-hour difference. Once the other end is answered, we started howling Happy Birthday to each other, followed by "How are you? What are you doing for your birthday"?, normal routine but this year there was a twist I least expected. My mom started by saying my age minus two. I told her the real age (of course she knew it, she was just teasing me and subtly telling me, "Oh hija, you’ve been there for two years already that I almost forgot"), and she mimicked a surprise voice, and after she recovered from the supposed shock told me with such temerity, ‘Darling you should get married now.’ WWWHHHHHHAAATTTT!!! And funny thing is, unlike any mother who would set up a standard for their future son-in-laws with qualities such as: loving, intelligent, blahblahblah, my mom, as unique as she is, only asked me to find a man with sharp nose!!! I wouldn’t start by telling you how obsessed my family is to have generations of sharp-nosed individuals. Probably I have to compensate my not having it by having children who will have the very desired quality. Oh mother!!! I only dismissed it with laughter! Of course she couldn’t be serious.
Not after I talked to one of my friends who innocently commented ‘Yey, in Asian standard, you’re in marrying age already.” And added, “you’re old!” that I got so terrified.
Who wouldn’t be? I mean no one can force me to get married, no one can and that's totally out of the question, but the realization that I was expected to have done something bigger scared me. I haven’t even done what I’m supposed to do, whatever that is. I don’t even know what my purpose is. And still the clock continues on ticking. . .tic-tac…
So timely I watched the Bucket List and made me wonder, what is my bucket list? And before I’d known it, I started scribbling on my notes, and this is what I came up with:
- play the guitar (I don't have the required patience though)
- go sky-diving (this I will do the soonest)
- try to write an article for a newspaper (I dunno, the idea just popped into my head)
- let go of my inhibitions that prevent me from being bold
- choose something, stick to it, and commit (don’t still know what I want to be but probably this is too early for this one.)
- don’t be afraid to get to fail and get hurt

I dare not try to measure my life, instead I will do my things distinctively, be happy, and set as a good example to those who look up to me… in that way I could say, I’m living my life to the fullest and that would suffice.

Chiva 2007

I was so proud to be able to make it...After Spanish class I was only left with few minutes to change from comfy clothing to decent CHIVA-like costume. I owe it to Steve for shouting and pressuring me while changing. Omar was amazed to see me running with belt still on hand...But I made it, that's what matters!!!

We did have a lot of fun. A lot of dancing which caused my feet to sore the next day. A lot of drinking for my other housemates which sent them to high productivity (being sarcastic here ;) the next two days...


with Faduoa

with Steve and Eli

with Taha and Patty

the evening's twist...CHIVA broke down, really didn't know the real reason, I heard a couple of versions like STEVE's: we hit a girl, TIFFANY's: Adam mysteriously made it stop (she looked serious when she told me this, might have been the effect of alcohol). on the pic: taha and I were fixing the car.

Let's Celebrate Life

…and the real story unfolds…

This all began many years ago, when yours truly was still a brat, little girl. As the only girl-child in the house, I seemed to have all the power to do anything I wanted to. And due to lack of playmates, then workers at the house were the poor recipient of my pernicious tricks, and since I was their boss’ daughter they couldn’t touch me. I was that horrible, I know!!! ...and then, one unusual revenge came in an unexpected manner … (her name was) Perla, who must’ve been fed up with all my seemingly innocent yet destructive at times acts, mapped out a plan to bring me down…for life. She claimed to be a fortune teller who could predict the future by merely looking on the birthdates and examining the lines of the palm. Her claim was matched with my eagerness to peep a little hole of my future, unaware of her sneaky intention. As a pre act she tried to predict my brothers’ futures which turned out something really good. I was really excited for mine but then it turned out that mine wasn’t as good as my brothers. Her poignant words, ¨You will not live long, you’ll die young¨ have taunted me ever since. Fear deterred me from sharing this burden to anyone. It had become a great paranoia when I reached teenage years. Any miniscule pain was always translated to cancer…In my mind I had experience all kinds of cancer and when I reached 20, was I happy!!! Every year since then was a big celebration. Of course I kept it all to myself…not until now.

The idea of having a short life has pushed me to my limits. There are bad things but good things can be fairly attributed as well. I couldn’t take it away from my mind, and somehow, I expect one of these days I would be out in this game… but then I fairly play the game. It led me to my aversion to anything risky, yet it made me risk for more (baffling??? I couldn’t explain it further). Age is just numbers… It doesn’t make you old or young… We should count all the things we’ve done and stop counting the years. I still believe I’m still young. Perla forgot to define what age is ‘young’ and 50 could still be young for all I know. I really should thank her for showing me that every tick of the clock counts, every relationship matters, and every person is worth caring for. For this I would like to toast a bottle of aguardiente: Happy 25th birthday to me!!!

*This will be my second birthday in Colombia. Last year was great; I had my first passed-out experience. To my friends back home, join me in my celebration… For…over the years and years to come!!! CHEERS!!!

To my mother, happy 59th birthday!

And Perla, wherever you are, Thank You!

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

During the two-day Lake Titicaca Tour I met interesting people composed of two Americans (artist, and Economist), and a Taiwanese who is currently studying M.A. in Stats in the U.S. Talking to them in English was a relief after days of talking in plain Spanish to almost everyone. All four of us agreed that the phrase STATISTICALLY SPEAKING is certainly a phrase we dreamed of saying should anyone dissent anything that we would say. Now, this is my statistic, and boy, don’t you dare throw me that phrase!
23 days of travelling
134 hours 45 minutes, my butt was rested on the bus seat
3 countries7 cities
19 churches
3 wonderful families
500+ photos
Hundreds of other foreigners
And a measly 600USD, we surely did make it!

H I G H L I G H T S

LIMA
Seeing again! As he said, we sort of expected this to happen. I had the chance to meet his uber-cool mom!
STARBUCKS, my obsession to Starbuck's mugs has been reinforced. Additional mug on the shelf right now.
AREQUIPA
The family who adopted us was such a darling. Beautiful churches, and our eyes were dancing upon seeing those cheap quality silver accessories.
CUZCO
Dizziness due to its altitude didn't hinder me from fully appreciating its beauty. I was enchanted by all that it has: churches and ruins...Nightlife was also great!
MACHU PICCHU
Undescribable!
PUNO
The Lake Titicaca tour, amidst inconveniences, I really enjoyed it. It opened my eyes in many ways than one.
BOLIVIA
La Paz, We stayed in a mansion-like house...Backpacks were loaded with beautifully designed stones.

(to be continued)

We Made It!

Finally, we're in Lima, Peru!

After so many alterations of plan, we finally made a decision to travel on New Year's Day! 48 hours of traveling by land, with a measly amount of money... I'm proud to say, I MADE IT!!!

A year back, I couldn't imagine myself traveling alone by bus even in my own country. Such gutsiness caused a bit of hysteria from my family members, and respect from friends...

To note, this is also my first time to travel with a Colombian which laxity almost drove me nuts. A couple of days before the travel, neither one of us had concrete step-by-step plan. When asked, Julieta would simply say 'Relax, everything will just be fine!´ I was doubtful and were crossing my fingers...but then again, she was right, everything turned out right!!!

(to be continued)

the 5 star 2 floor international bus, inside and out!

I wouldn't mind traveling for days in this kind of bus

reunited with Davo! the real tourists: Filipina and Colombian in Peru!

yey, Starbucks in Lima (because of Juan Valdez, Starbucks couldn't penetrate the Colombian Market, therefore such an excitement I felt upon seeing Starbucks after a year!)!

CHINATOWN

Central Plaza of Lima

More Photos: ECUADOR-PERU TRIP

Parque el Cafe

Miss you guys!!!

Medellin